What is already working well?
Often when we think about our own performance or the performance of our team we see what doesn’t work, and don’t focus on all the things that are working perfectly well. This is very sad, because these are exactly the things we can build on to improve. Most of the time it is much easier to do more of what is working than to try to fix what is broken and doesn’t work.
I lately stumbled over a great story from David Weber at the University of North Carolina Wilmington that illustrates the power of the simple question “what works?”:
“This morning I participated in a 2-hour meeting with a prospective client . Three of us participated in the meeting. The “client” is not just one person – it is the executive team that governs a small town. Team members include the mayor, town manager, town finance officer and a couple of other key players. These administrators want my group to develop a leadership training program for business professionals in the town. A program that would equip and encourage participants to take on community leadership positions. The team mentioned several times that the town’s business professionals tend to show little interest in doing this.
On three or four occasions during the meeting, the executive team talked in detail about a festival they had launched a couple of years ago that has since become increasingly well known. They mentioned that many of the town’s business professionals, administrators and private citizens DO came together to administer a very successful event each year.
After hearing this several times, my colleagues began asking questions such as, “What problems are you facing with getting MORE people to become involved in the festival?” and “What is it about your strategic planning that prevents MORE people from getting involved in the festival?”
I realized, though, that the information about the festival was LESS about the festival, and MORE about what, in this town, effectively causes people to “take on community leadership positions” – which is what the townspeople who get involved in the festival are doing … and what the leadership program supposedly will be about. After all, my colleagues and I were not called in to help them fine-tune or improve the festival!
So I asked the obvious Solution focused question: “What ‘works’ to get so many people in the town taking action together to ‘pull off’ a successful festival?” As soon as I asked the question, the town administrators became silent. Finally, the mayor said, “That’s a VERY good question.” He and his team members began responding to my question – - slowly at first and then very enthusiastically. The information contained in their responses indicated some of the basic topics or themes that the program my group will design must seriously consider building into the program.
I wanted to share that story with you because when I asked the question, the response of the town administrators was so notable: intake and exhalation of breath; then silence; then reflection and, slowly then rapidly, talking about “what works.” I sensed they felt liberated and able to manage their future … they had “hope,” I guess one would say, that they did not have prior to the meeting, nor during the questions about “what’s wrong.”
A small moment … a basic and not-very-creative solution focused framed question … and certainly not a dramatic story – yet I wanted to share it with you to affirm for us how powerful our Solution focused tools can be in those “small moments.”
